Six years
after his death (7th July 2006) Syd Barrett lives on freeze framed, still young
and a striking lost soul of the sixties whose brief moment of creativity
outshines those long years of solitude shut away in a terraced house in his
home town of Cambridge.
This
revealing programme hears how his band Pink Floyd (and family) coped with
Barrett's mental breakdown and explores the hurriedly arranged holiday to the
Spanish island of Formentera - where the star unravelled. In the programme we
also hear about Barrett's pioneering brand of English psychedelic pop typified
on early Pink Floyd recordings 'Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play' and the strange
songs on Pink Floyd's impressive debut album 'The Piper At the Gates of Dawn'.
Undoubtedly
Barrett's experimentation with the drug LSD affected him mentally and the band
members reveal how concerned they were when he began to go catatonic on-stage,
playing music that had little to do with their material, or not playing at all.
By Spring 1968 Barrett was out of the group and after a brief period of hibernation,
he re-emerged in 1970 with a pair of albums, 'The Madcap Laughs' and 'Barrett',
but they failed to chart and Barrett retired to a hermit life existing under
the watchful gaze of his caring sister Rosemary (featured in the programme)
We hear from
David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright (one of the last interviews before
his sad passing) about how there was little understanding of mental illness
when it came to the drug fused culture of the time. These days a strung out
star is hurriedly booked into the Priory and given counselling. As this
programme reveals Barrett's mental breakdown was not understood and the steps
taken to help him were inappropriate and still rankle the members of Pink Floyd
today.
Producer:
John Sugar
A Sugar
Production for BBC Radio 4.
Music Played-
Syd Barrett-?
Pink
Floyd-Arnold Layne
Pink
Floyd-Interstellar overdrive
Pink
Floyd-See Emily play
Syd Barrett-?
Syd
Barrett-Baby lemonade
Pink
Floyd-Shine on you crazy diamond
Pink Floyd-Wish
you were here
Incomplete tracklist
Captured Internet Stream mp3
| Download Link |
| Alternative Link |
No comments:
Post a Comment